We resolve the difference in the yield ratio $\rm S_3$ = $\rm \frac{N_{^3_ΛH}/N_Λ}{N_{^3He}/N_p}$ measured in Au+Au collisions at $\rm \sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV and in Pb-Pb collisions at $\rm \sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV by adopting a different treatment of the weak decay contribution to the proton yield in Au+Au collisions at $\rm \sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. We then use the coalescence model to extract information on the $Λ$ and nucleon density fluctuations at the kinetic freeze-out of heavy ion collisions. We also show from available experimental data that the yield ratio $\rm S_2$ = $\rm \frac{N_{^3_ΛH}}{N_ΛN_ d}$ is a more promising observable than $\rm S_3$ for probing the local baryon-strangeness correlation in the produced medium.
The production of dibaryons, light nuclei and hypertriton in the most central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 11.5 and 200 GeV are investigated by using a naive coalescence model. The production of light nuclei is studied and found that the production rate reduces by a factor of 330 (1200) for each extra nucleon added to nuclei at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 11.5 (200) GeV. The $p_{T}$ integrated yield of multistrange hadrons falls exponentially as strangeness quantum number increases. We further investigate strangeness population factor $S_{3}, S_{2}$ as a function of transverse momentum as well as…
The study of nuclei and antinuclei production has proven to be a powerful tool to investigate the formation mechanism of loosely bound states in high-energy hadronic collisions. The first measurement of the production of ${\rm ^{3}_Λ\rm H}$ in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV is presented in this Letter. Its production yield measured in the rapidity interval $-1 < y < 0$ for the 40% highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions is ${\rm d} N /{\rm d} y =[\mathrm{6.3 \pm 1.8 (stat.) \pm 1.2 (syst.) ] \times 10^{-7}}$. The measurement is compared with the expectations of statistical had…
An improved value for the lifetime of the (anti-)hypertriton has been obtained using the data sample of Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = $ 5.02 TeV collected by the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The (anti-)hypertriton has been reconstructed via its charged two-body mesonic decay channel and the lifetime has been determined from an exponential fit to the d$N$/d($ct$) spectrum. The measured value, $τ$ = 242$^{+34}_{-38}$ (stat.) $\pm$ 17 (syst.) ps, is compatible with all the available theoretical predictions, thus contributing to the solution of the longstanding hypertriton lifetime…
The ALICE Collaboration collected a large data sample of Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV in 2015 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the excellent particle identification (PID) capabilities allow for the detection of rarely produced (anti-)hypernuclei. In particular, the (anti-)hypertriton, $^3_Λ$H, which is a bound state of a proton, a neutron and a $Λ$, is the lightest known hypernucleus. The results on the $^3_Λ$H production are compared with the predictions from a model based on coalescence approach and from statistical-thermal models to investigate the production me…
Using the coalescence model based on the phase-space distributions of protons, neutrons, Lambdas and their antiparticles from a multiphase transport (AMPT) model, we study the production of deuteron, triton, helium 3, hypertriton, hyperhelium 3 and their antinuclei in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV. The resulting transverse momentum spectra, elliptic flows and coalescence parameters for these nuclei are presented and compared with available experimental data. We also show the constituent number scaled elliptic flows of these nuclei and discuss their implications.
Nuclear collisions recreate conditions in the universe microseconds after the Big Bang. Only a very small fraction of the emitted fragments are light nuclei, but these states are of fundamental interest. We report the observation of antihypertritons - composed of an antiproton, antineutron, and antilambda hyperon - produced by colliding gold nuclei at high energy. Our analysis yields 70 +- 17 antihypertritons and 157 +- 30 hypertritons. The measured yields of hypertriton (antihypertriton) and helium3 (antihelium3) are similar, suggesting an equilibrium in coordinate and momentum space populati…
We show that the recently observed suppression of the yield ratio of deuteron to proton and of helium-3 to proton in p+p collisions compared to those in p+Pb or Pb+Pb collisions by the ALICE Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can be explained if light nuclei are produced from the coalescence of nucleons at the kinetic freeze-out of these collisions. This suppression is attributed to the non-negligible sizes of deuteron and helium-3 compared to the size of the nucleon emission source in collisions of small systems, which reduces the overlap of their internal wave functions with th…
In ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions a great variety of (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei are produced, namely deuteron, triton, $^3$He, $^4$He, hypertriton ($^3_Λ$H) and their antiparticles. The ALICE experiment is the most suited to investigate the production of (hyper-)nuclei at the LHC, thanks to an excellent particle identification and low-material budget detectors. Recent results on (hyper-)nuclei production as a function of transverse momentum ($p_{\rm{T}}$) and charged particle multiplicity (d$N_{\rm{ch}}$/d$η$) in Pb-Pb collisions are presented. The evolution of the production yields with t…
A comparison of light hypernuclei production, from UrQMD+coalescence and the thermal model, in heavy ion collisions over a wide range of beam energies and system sizes is presented. We find that both approaches provide generally similar results, with differences in specific details. Especially the ratios of hypertriton to $Λ$ are affected by both the source radius $Δr$ of the coalescence procedure as well as canonical effects. On the other hand, the double ratio $S_3$ is almost independent of canonical effects, which is in contrast to coalescence. Thus, both the beam energy dependence and cent…
By the methods of mathematical statistics we test a qualitative prediction of the old theory of relativistic hydrodynamics non-viscous liquid which can be used as a part of the process of hadronization within the modern hydrodynamical approach for the description of the quark-gluon plasma. Experimental data on the interaction of protons with the energies of 0.8 TeV with emulsion nuclei are used. Results do not contradict the formation of relativistic ideal non-viscous liquid in rare central collisions.
Using the coalescence model based on the phase-space distribution of nucleons from an extended blast-wave model that includes the space-momentum correlation of high momentum nucleons, we study the transverse momentum spectra and elliptic flows of deuteron and helium-3 in Pb+Pb collisions at the energy $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV. We find that the measured elliptic flows of deuteron can be satisfactorily described if nucleons of large transverse momenta are more spread in space when their momenta are more aligned along the reaction plane.
First results of ALICE on the production of nuclei and antinuclei in pp collisions at \surd s = 7 TeV are presented. These particles are identified using the energy loss (dE/dx) measurements in the Time Projection Chamber. The Inner Tracking System allows a precise determination of the event vertex, by which primary and secondary particles are well separated. The high statistics of over 350 M events give a significant number of light nuclei and antinuclei such as (anti)deuterons, (anti)tritons, (anti)Helium3 and possibly (anti)hypertritons. The study of nuclei and antinuclei will help to under…
We present results of a search for two hypothetical strange dibaryon states, i.e. the H-dibaryon and the possible $\bar{Λ\mathrm{n}}$ bound state. The search is performed with the ALICE detector in central (0-10%) Pb-Pb collisions at $ \sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 2.76$ TeV, by invariant mass analysis in the decay modes $\bar{Λ\mathrm{n}} \rightarrow \bar{\mathrm{d}} π^{+} $ and H-dibaryon $\rightarrow Λ\mathrm{p} π^{-}$. No evidence for these bound states is observed. Upper limits are determined at 99% confidence level for a wide range of lifetimes and for the full range of branching ratios. The resu…
Understanding the production mechanism of light (anti)nuclei is one of the key challenges of nuclear physics and has important consequences for astrophysics, since it provides an input for indirect dark-matter searches in space. In this paper, the latest results about the production of light (anti)nuclei in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV are presented, focusing on the comparison with the predictions of coalescence and thermal models. For the first time, the coalescence parameters $B_2$ for deuterons and $B_3$ for helions are compared with parameter-free theoretical predictions that are d…
The statistical hadronization model is a simple and efficient phenomenological framework in which the relative yields for very high energy heavy ion collisions are essentially determined by a single model parameter---the chemical freeze-out temperature. Recent measurements of yields of hadrons and light nuclei covering over 9 orders of magnitudes from the ALICE collaboration at the LHC were described by the model with remarkable accuracy with a chemical freeze-out temperature of 156.5 $\pm$ 1.5 MeV. A key physical question is whether the freeze-out temperature can be understood, literally, as …
The high center-of-mass energies delivered by the LHC during the last three years of operation led to accumulate a significant statistics of light (hyper-)nuclei in pp, p--Pb and Pb--Pb collisions. The ALICE apparatus allows for the detection of these rarely produced particles over a wide momentum range thanks to its excellent vertexing, tracking and particle identification capabilities. The last is based on the specific energy loss in the Time Projection Chamber and the velocity measurement with the Time-Of-Flight detector. The Cherenkov technique, exploited by a small acceptance detector (HM…
Production of the (anti)hypertriton nuclei $\rm ^3_ΛH$ and $\rm ^3_{\overline Λ}\overline H$ in Cu+Cu interactions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=200$GeV is studied at three centrality bins of 0-10\%, 10-30\% and 30-60\% using the dynamically constrained phase-space coalescence model together with [PACIAE] model simulations. The $\rm ^3H(^3\overline H)$ and $\rm ^3He(^3\overline {He})$ nuclei has been compared. It is indicated by the study that the yields of light nuclei and hypernuclei increase rapidly from peripheral to central collisions while their anti-particle to particle ratios keep unchanged f…
The production of the hypertriton nuclei $^{3}_Λ\mathrm H$ and $^{3}_{\barΛ} \overline{\mathrm H}$ has been measured for the first time in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV with the ALICE experiment at LHC energies. The total yield, d$N$/d$y$ $\times \mathrm{B.R.}_{\left( ^{3}_Λ\mathrm H \rightarrow ^{3}\mathrm{He},π^{-} \right)} = \left( 3.86 \pm 0.77 (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 0.68 (\mathrm{syst.})\right) \times 10^{-5}$ in the 0-10% most central collisions, is consistent with the predictions from a statistical thermal model using the same temperature as for the light hadrons. The…
Electromagnetic dissociation of heavy nuclei in ultra-peripheral interactions at high energies can be used to monitor the beam luminosity at colliders. In ALICE neutrons emitted by the excited nuclei close to beam rapidity are detected by the Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs), providing a precise measurement of the event rate. During the 2010 Pb run, a dedicated data taking was performed triggering on electromagnetic processes with the ZDCs. These data, combined with the results from a Van der Meer scan, allowed to measure the electromagnetic dissociation cross-section of Pb nuclei at $\sqrt{s_{…
Invariant differential yields of deuterons and anti-deuterons in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV and the yields of tritons, $^{3}$He nuclei and their anti-nuclei at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV have been measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurements cover a wide transverse momentum ($p_{\text{T}}$) range in the rapidity interval $|y|<0.5$, extending both the energy and the $p_{\text{T}}$ reach of previous measurements up to 3 GeV/$c$ for $A=2$ and 6 GeV/$c$ for $A=3$. The coalescence parameters of (anti-)deuterons and $^{3}\overline{\text{He}}$ nu…
The study of the production of nuclei and antinuclei in pp collisions has proven to be a powerful tool to investigate the formation mechanism of loosely bound states in high-energy hadronic collisions. In this paper, the production of protons, deuterons and $^3$He and their charge conjugates at midrapidity is studied as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity in inelastic pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV using the ALICE detector. Within the uncertainties, the yields of nuclei in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV are compatible with those in pp collisions at different energies an…
The pseudorapidity distributions of dijets as a function of their average transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}^\text{ave}$) are measured in proton-lead (pPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions. The data samples were collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. A significant modification of the pPb spectra with respect to the pp spectra is observed in all $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{ave}$ intervals investigated. The ratios of the pPb and pp distributions are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculations with u…
We present first results on the production of nuclei and antinuclei such as (anti)deuterons, (anti)tritons, (anti)3He and (anti)4He in pp collisions at $\s$ = 7 TeV and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sNN$ = 2.76 TeV. These particles are identified using their energy loss (dE/dx) information in the Time Projection Chamber of the ALICE experiment. The Inner Tracking System gives a precise determination of the event vertex, by which primary and secondary particles are separated. The high statistics of over 360 million events for pp and 16 million events for Pb-Pb collisions give a significant number of li…
The intense photon fluxes of relativistic nuclei provide a possibility to study photonuclear and two-photon interactions in ultra-peripheral collisions (UPC) where the nuclei do not overlap and no strong nuclear interactions occur. The study of such collisions provides information about the initial state of nuclei. First ALICE results from the LHC Run 2 are presented for forward exclusive \jpsi production in UPC, which is sensitive to the gluon distribution in nuclei. The increased statistics and the higher collision energy allows for a more detailed study at lower values of Bjorken-$x$. The a…
We analyze the suppression of particle production at large transverse momenta in ($0-5%$ most) central collisions of gold nuclei at $\sqrt{s_\textrm{NN}}=$ 200 GeV and lead nuclei at $\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}=$ 2.76 TeV. Full next-to-leading order radiative corrections at ${\cal{O}}(α_s^3)$, and nuclear effects like shadowing and parton energy loss are included. The parton energy loss is implemented in a simple multiple scattering model, where the partons lose an energy $ε=λ\times dE/dx$ per collision, where $λ$ is their mean free path. We take $ε=κE$ for a treatment which is suggestive of the B…
$z$-Scaling of inclusive spectra as a manifestation of self-similarity and fractality of hadron interactions is illustrated. The scaling for negative particle production in $Au+Au$ collisions from BES-I program at RHIC is demonstrated. The scaling variable $z$ depends on the momentum fractions of the colliding objects carried by the interacting constituents, and on the momentum fractions of the fragmenting objects in the scattered and recoil directions carried by the inclusive particle and its counterpart, respectively. Structures of the colliding objects and fragmentation processes in final s…
The measurement of the deuteron and anti-deuteron production in the rapidity range $-1 < y < 0$ as a function of transverse momentum and event multiplicity in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV is presented. (Anti-)deuterons are identified via their specific energy loss $\rm{d}E/\rm{d}x$ and via their time-of-flight. Their production in p-Pb collisions is compared to pp and Pb-Pb collisions and is discussed within the context of thermal and coalescence models. The ratio of integrated yields of deuterons to protons (d/p) shows a significant increase as a function of the charged-…
Collisions of identical nuclei at finite impact parameter have an unequal number of participating nucleons from each nucleus due to fluctuations. The event-by-event fluctuations have been estimated by measuring the difference of energy in the zero-degree calorimeters on either side of interaction vertex. The fluctuations affect the global variables such as the rapidity distributions, and the effect has been correlated with a measure of these fluctuations.
The first measurement of neutron emission in electromagnetic dissociation of $^{208}$Pb nuclei at the LHC is presented. The measurement is performed using the neutron Zero Degree Calorimeters of the ALICE experiment, which detect neutral particles close to beam rapidity. The measured cross sections of single and mutual electromagnetic dissociation of Pb nuclei at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV with neutron emission are $σ_{\rm single\ EMD} = 187.4\pm0.2$ (stat.) $^{+13.2} _{-11.2}$ (syst.) b and $σ_{\rm mutual\ EMD} = 5.7\pm0.1$ (stat.) $\pm$0.4 (syst.) b, respectively. The experimental result…
The production of (anti-)deuteron and (anti-)$^{3}$He nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV has been studied using the ALICE detector at the LHC. The spectra exhibit a significant hardening with increasing centrality. Combined blast-wave fits of several particles support the interpretation that this behavior is caused by an increase of radial flow. The integrated particle yields are discussed in the context of coalescence and thermal-statistical model expectations. The particle ratios, $^3$He/d and $^3$He/p, in Pb-Pb collisions are found to be in agreement with a common …
We make predictions for the cross sections of coherent photoproduction of $ρ$, $ϕ$, $J/ψ$, $ψ(2S)$, and $Υ(1S)$ mesons in Pb-Pb ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV in the kinematics of run 2 at the Large Hadron Collider extending the approaches successfully describing the available Pb-Pb UPC data at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV. Our results illustrate the important roles of hadronic fluctuations of the photon and inelastic nuclear shadowing in photoproduction of light vector mesons on nuclei and the large leading twist nuclear gluon shadowing in photoproduction of quarkon…
Recent results on the production of light nuclei, including deuterons, tritons, $^3$He, $^4$He and the corresponding antinuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV are presented and compared with theoretical predictions to provide insight into their production mechanisms in heavy-ion collisions. The large variety of measurements performed with the ALICE apparatus at different energies and collision systems allows us to constrain the models of the production mechanisms of light flavour baryon clusters, in particular those based on the coalescence and statistical hadronisa…
The statistical event-by-event analysis of inelastic interactions of protons in emulsion at 800 GeV reveals the existence of group of events with Gaussian pseudorapidity distributions for produced particles, as suggested by hydrodynamic-tube model. Events belong to very central collisions of protons with heavy emulsion nuclei with probability of realization of less than 1% and with multiplicity of shower particles exceeding (2-3 times) the average multiplicity in proton-nucleus collisions in emulsion. The Bjorken's energy density for these events reaches 2.0 GeV per fm^3. The data are interpre…
First results on the longitudinal asymmetry and its effect on the pseudorapidity distributions in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider are obtained with the ALICE detector. The longitudinal asymmetry arises because of an unequal number of participating nucleons from the two colliding nuclei, and is estimated for each event by measuring the energy in the forward neutron-Zero-Degree-Calorimeters (ZNs). The effect of the longitudinal asymmetry is measured on the pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles in the regions $|η| < 0.9$, $2.8 < η< …
The centrality dependence of pseudorapidity density of charged particles and transverse energy is studied for a wide range of collision energies for heavy-ion collisions at midrapidity from 7.7 GeV to 5.02 TeV. A two-component model approach has been adopted to quantify the soft and hard components of particle production, coming from nucleon participants and binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, respectively. Within experimental uncertainties, the hard component contributing to the particle production has been found not to show any clear collision energy dependence from RHIC to LHC. The effect of…
The production mechanism of (anti)nuclei in ultrarelativistic hadronic collisions is under intense debate in the scientific community. The description of the experimental measurements is currently based on two competing phenomenological models: the statistical hadronization model and the coalescence approach. Light (anti)nuclei have been extensively measured in small collision systems, namely pp and p--Pb collisions, with ALICE at the LHC. Recent results on the (anti)deuteron production measured in jets and in the underlying event, and in high-multiplicity pp collisions at a center-of-mass ene…
This publication describes the methods used to measure the centrality of inelastic Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per colliding nucleon pair with ALICE. The centrality is a key parameter in the study of the properties of QCD matter at extreme temperature and energy density, because it is directly related to the initial overlap region of the colliding nuclei. Geometrical properties of the collision, such as the number of participating nucleons and number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, are deduced from a Glauber model with a sharp impact parameter selection, and s…
The measurement of the mass differences for systems bound by the strong force has reached a very high precision with protons and anti-protons. The extension of such measurement from (anti-)baryons to (anti-)nuclei allows one to probe any difference in the interactions between nucleons and anti-nucleons encoded in the (anti-)nuclei masses. This force is a remnant of the underlying strong interaction among quarks and gluons and can be described by effective theories, but cannot yet be directly derived from quantum chromodynamics. Here we report a measurement of the difference between the ratios …
